The Gigglewitch brings the Gigglebeat!

Although Janie Jones is probably best known now as the subject of a Clash song, as we noted yesterday, she did have a singing career before them and before her stint running a prostitution ring that led to her notorious prison sentence. Her biggest hit of the 1960s is a fun number called "Witches Brew" that bubbles over with something the record sleeve advertises as "Gigglebeat." 

What is Gigglebeat exactly? I'm not sure, but I think it involves Janie Jones' wickedly gleeful witch laugh and boiling cauldron sound effects. This song is much more tame than yesterday's dominatrix-themed "House of the Ju-Ju Queen," but it's no less entertaining. It was written by her sister Valerie and is in keeping with the spooky pop style of several 60s songs that came out in the wake of the success of "The Monster Mash." 

But even though this was Janie Jones' highest charting record of her career, it wasn't her first brush with notoriety. In 1964, just a year before the release of "Witches Brew," she caused a splash by arriving topless to the premiere of London in the Raw, a documentary about London nightlife. Clearly this is a woman who knew who she was from an early age and was eager to show the world! Listen below and let the Gigglewitch enchant you with her Gigglebeat.